By Aashi Kasotia
Sugar Land, Texas Chapter Co-head Mental health is an important aspect in our everyday lives as it is seen almost everywhere around us, whether we are in school or with our family and friends. According to the United Nations, millions of people worldwide have mental health conditions and an estimated one in four people will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime. Furthermore, it greatly impacts our ability to reach our full potential, work productively, and effectively contribute to our community. Without positive mental health practices and coping strategies, it becomes hard for many people to function throughout their day and can lead to the worsening of many serious mental health illnesses such as depression and ADHD. However, the problem is that these illnesses are often portrayed incorrectly or stereotyped in the media by depicting an illness as more or less severe than it actually is. But, why do multimillion-dollar companies feel the need to exacerbate the effects of such illnesses and misrepresent them in their content? The answer is simple. These companies run based on how interested their audience is in the plot and storyline, so they often stretch the truth to entertain their audience and maintain profits. By illustrating an extremely positive or negative mental illness, the media engages their audience with added conflicts and drama, therefore, leading to an increase in views and likes. Despite their intentions, many companies do not understand or care about the negative effects they have on the mental health of others and the inaccurate stereotypes they create in society. Regardless of what they feel, the stigmas created through the media have a large impact on what people tend to believe about mental health. Mentally ill people are often characterized as more violent, less likely to recover, and also extremely different from the other “normal” characters. On the other hand, characters can be designed to have an overly positive attitude about an illness, ignoring the fact that a certain illness is actually hard to live with. These interpretations can lead to false beliefs regarding the symptoms of mental health illnesses and cause people to act on these beliefs in their own life experiences. For example, a 2006 study claims that 60% of Americans believe that schizophrenics are violent due to their portrayal of them committing crimes and going to jail in common media sources. However, data proves that it is closer to only 7.5% of people who actually display symptoms of aggressive behavior and violence as a result of schizophrenia, so most media sources completely exaggerate what the illness really is. This demonstrates the heavy influence that media can have on our perception of others and their issues, leading to further inequality and discrimination of mentally ill people. Now that you understand some of the ways that media companies negatively portray mental health, how can we reduce the stigma associated with these illnesses? Firstly, to undo the effects of the media's misrepresentation, you can use your knowledge to educate people correctly and fix their perception of mental health illnesses. For example, you can create a social media page that sheds a positive light on illnesses, conduct interviews to gather accurate information from mentally-ill people, or host a presentation for people in your community to share your findings. Additionally, you can promote open communication about mental health topics and be careful about the language you use when discussing them with others. It is important to set an example for others as to how we can discourage shame and stigmatization and replace it with compassion and empathy. Lastly, you can go directly to the media sources and advocate for them reporting accurate information, approaching sensitive topics with a positive attitude, and including expert input to reduce misrepresentation. There are many ways to address this issue in society, and most of the ideas start with you! So, what will you do next time you see a TV or movie show that stigmatizes mental health? We hope you make the right choice and help others realize what mental illnesses truly are. Resources https://www.icanotes.com/2018/04/11/ways-mental-illness-is-commonly-misrepresented-in-the-media/ https://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/articles/2015/04/16/how-mental-illness-is-misrepresented-in-the-media https://www.verywellmind.com/mental-health-stigmas-in-mass-media-4153888 https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/mental-health-and-development.html
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|